I don't pretend to know the agenda behind the mex decision to buy Russian jets; but there is nothing wrong with the planes, they are affordable, robust, powerful & if equiped with the Russian look down - shoot down radar; they're down right deadly. It definetly puts them one step above the other central american countries.
Ten planes would not even be a speed bump to the United States's air arm & the mexican military knows it, so I doubt it was thinking they would be when they purchased them. But as far as how the Russian military equipment fares against our planes, here is a snip from a news article about a recent war game against Russian Equipment flown by Indian Pilots:
"The success of India's air force against US fighters in an exercise suggests the US may be losing its air superiority, a US general has said. Gen Hal Hornburg said an exercise in February, known as Cope India, had been "a wake-up call".
The mock air battles in central India had pitted US F-15s against advanced Russian-designed Sukhoi SU-30s. General Hornburg said the results show the US may not be as far ahead of the rest of the world as it had thought."
Of course this all could have been a staged result by the U.S. air force to help push through the F-22 & other advanced tactical fighter programs.
